


The Sociable Numbers

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aristotelian metaphysics, Ffordean mathematical dystopias, Multiple strongly non-traditional alpha/beta/omega variations, and with regard to the troupe I want nothing more than to wreck its recycled sexism with satire, as they also in borrowing number names from various languages reference that, because I heard it was happening hereabouts, illegitimate appeals to Saffir-Whorf, mathematical Platonism, phrenology, poorly executed polyamory, so if you care about wondering about that go watch it before reading, technically the Biths majorly spoil vihart's wau video, tetraphobes beware, the only thing intended by the mostly switch to the abjad is direct reference to mathematical use, this was a ridiculous idea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-24 22:02:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14364621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/





	The Sociable Numbers

_There are three mathematical measures of cardinality, which the beings of Muunilinst chose to apply socially (if not strictly in keeping with the technical definitions). Omega, though a character from a different writing system with a longer history of borrowing to mathematics, is taken, as its last character, the analogue to "z", to symbolizes the state of being finite. Appreciation of this simple and sublime idea often became overshadowed by the interest in the infinity until we reached the state today. Aleph is the simplest infinity (though mathematically there are more than one and they are ranked and it is far less simple), and is far outstripped at every step by Beth, the (also infinite) cardinality of its subsets._

They measure Hego at birth (of course they do) and give this verdict: Beth. It is a disappointment to Caar, and, if we are perfectly honest, his wife, the child’s mother.

Caar’s first marriage is twice cardinal (having two Alephs) and as such things often go, if one listens to the mythos surrounding the Aleph status, not an especially comfortable thing. All the great love stories are of Aleph and Omega, the duality of finity.

(An aside: as for Hego’s mother, she too was measured at birth, designation Omega, and thus ideal for childbearing. She was also held to a metric by her mentor, of sorts, and informed she would, if permitted to be sorted by a different system, qualify as shī (4)–the rarest and oddest (composite! square!) designation of temperament in his societal worldview. (He is wau (1), but the order of the integers is not relevant here, “only their qualities.”) However, phrenological ratios, taken at birth but determined from adult attributes, change, and unbeknownst to her, had she been measured again, she too would be labeled as belonging to the infinite.)

Beth is not a desirable designation. Too complicated, too aloof by nature, unlikely to produce offspring. A match between Beth and Aleph is taut and prone to dissolution and tangling. Omegas, the gap in temperament is much too great. If anyone is suited by the label, perhaps it is an extra daughter.

But perhaps he will warp towards an Aleph as he grows?

It is popularly said and never publicly denied that both Alephs and Omegas are perenially ready for the carnal joining. Personal experience on the part of all and sundry readily demonstrates this not to be true, but it is possible for some to be willfully ignorant and never honestly consider the experiential evidence. Caar is not one of these–he takes on honest doubts, but his second wife suspects only that she is an outlier. Neither is sure what to think about their offspring’s status, for neither of them have purposefully associated with Beths.

–

The day comes that Hego Damask, now grown, is re-measured, and the measurer remarks “I have potentially good news, and potentially bad.”

“I could reclassify him. But the ratios–lying the allowable half centimeter in the Beth range–would make him an Omega.”

“Which he clearly is not,” said Caar (Omega sons were…embarrassing.) He wanted the boy for an heir.

—

Some years later:

A rather amateur anthropologist once deemed Naboo’s human gender system “Celestial Bodies”. The planet has two moons (one extremely small) and orbits a solitary star, but the ideas making their mark on the existent classification did not properly reflect this.

To the casual outside observer in this period, it looked very much as if “lunar” were wholly and entirely code for feminine, and “solar” the same for “masculine”, yet this said nothing about the “geol” classification (which one Corellian observer had once wryly mistaken for a “gaol” category), and to put it mildly, lacked some nuance.

Said anthropologist was interested in the topic’s history and had this, ultimately, to say about it:

The origins of the celestial bodies system lie in a time when the language which ultimately dominated and became modern Naboo still retained grammatical gender (no longer present in the modern tongue) and other archaic features. It seems some influential areas in the linguistic region participated in a matriarchial sun cult, and the word for sun was feminine grammatically, which perhaps begins to explain the association of local system objects with gender roles. However, the existence of a celibate moon religion is also well attested. At that time and place, it seems fair to say that women held a prominent role in religion.

All this was uprooted when political shifts imported a neighboring language and more patriarchal attitudes into this linchpin region. Although the language soon lost gender, the reversed genders of the vital celestial bodies took hold in the planetary consciousness. Now, and for the rest of the history, the steady sun would be more masculine, and the fickle moon associated with hysteria and similar antics.

These linguistic artifacts do not actually explain the origin of the system, but they do suggest a number of attributes currently present. It is, indisputably, considered far more favorable for men (the sex as commonly determined) to be solar, and women (similarly) lunar, although a) exceptions commonly occur and b) there is no particular skew in geol, but to many it is an undesirable status.

Current favor skews toward the rulers of Naboo being exclusively elected from among sols, although there is nothing actually requiring this. Despite a lack of supportive biological evidence, the popular picture is that solar individuals are the most competent and sexually potent class. Geols (sometimes morphs into “geodes”) have historically dominated religion and academia, although this statistic is diminishing. In recent history, especially after the advent of inexpensive and competent med-droids on Naboo, the most typical occupation of luns is parenthood.

Topics currently under debate include: whether relationships between two sols are socially acceptable; separately, what relationships are acceptable for those 20-25% of women who are nevertheless sols; and (although given little credit) whether the sexual education with regard to gender promotes gender related violence.

It is nie on impossible to completely understand the nature of the system as an outsider, but it is nevertheless necessary to any accurate approximation that a certain fact is understood: this celestial bodies gender system is wholly based on temperament, and not actually anatomy. Yet it is so desirable that certain people fulfill certain roles that parents attempt to raise children into particular temperament.

...

Cosinga Palpatine is most definitely--anyone would certainly agree--a sol, and his wife a lun (again, by consensus). Luns have greater loyalty to one particular person, or, to put it differently, are more inclined to monogamy--this is one of the well agreed upon traits.

In any case, the fact that the pairing is the vaunted ideal makes the fact that their son is resolutely planetary, geol, seemingly detached and dispassionate and caring for sport only for the feel of acceleration; for quiet handiwork only because of intricate geometric harmonies ...disappointing.


End file.
